Inside Asian Gaming

IAG JAN 2021年1月 亞博匯 38 COVER STORY WHEN? To many in the industry, this is the most vexing question. Japan has been talking about introducing IRs to its shores for decades, and the process has been besieged by delay upon delay. There always seems to be some kind of pause-causing election around the corner in Japan, and in 2020 we’ve seen a change of Prime Minister and the global pandemic. The political will to push IRs through is only on one side of national politics, that of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), but at least that side has a safe majority in the Diet. The Japanese have a notorious reputation for planning everything in business and politics to the nth degree, so decision-making can be a tedious and lengthy process requiring many steps up and down a chain of command. The upside of this fastidious approach to planning is that once decisions finally are made, implementation should roll out fairly efficiently. Shortly after the passing of the Integrated Resorts (IR) Implementation Act in 2018, the prevailing wisdom was that Japan’s first IR would open in Osaka just in time for that city’s hosting of the World Expo in 2025, but that horse has long bolted. The Japanese government has now officially revised its schedule for opening the nation’s first integrated resorts to the second half of the decade. This was announced in December at a joint sub- committee meeting which included the Liberal Democratic Party’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the ministry responsible for the rollout of IRs in Japan. The announcement followed the An artist’s impression of Suncity Group’s planned IR in Wakayama. 太陽城集團的和歌山IR設計概念圖。